CVE-2026-32281
Description
A flaw was found in Go's crypto/x509 package. A remote attacker could exploit this by presenting a specially crafted certificate chain containing a large number of policy mappings. This inefficient validation process consumes excessive resources, which can lead to a denial of service (DoS) for applications or systems performing certificate validation.
Statement
This flaw occurs during the validation of otherwise trusted certificate chains that contain a large number of policy mappings, leading to excessive resource consumption. Exploitation requires an attacker to present a specially crafted, yet trusted, certificate chain which would require the attacker has already compromised a trusted certificate root. Red Hat continuously monitors certificate authorities and curates the set which is trusted by default for Red Hat products.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.9 | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | None | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | None |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); Reduce Performance
This issue can make the product perform more slowly. If an attacker can influence the number of iterations in the loop, then this performance problem might allow a denial of service by consuming more platform resources than intended.
Frequently Asked Questions
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